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And according to two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, it’s coming at a time when the world’s premier open-wheel racing circuit is under intense scrutiny to change or continue to bleed fans.

Alonso is also parrotting his Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo’s view that F-1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone should meet with stakeholders soon to discuss how to make the racing better.

In a press conference to launch this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring, Alonso said the series needs to provide more “spectacle” for the fans.

“I think (di Montezemolo) is right in a way, that the show that we put on this year is not good enough in some of the races,” he said.

Could it be that Alonso and di Montezemolo are in fact speaking out now only because Ferrari lags so far behind Mercedes that they are looking to Ecclestone and the FIA to level the grid?

One would hope not, but that does appear to be the case and everyone associated with the F-1 political system for longer than a minute soon realizes how much sway the Prancing Pony brigade holds in the boardrooms.

Just listen to what Alonso had to say.

“When one team is dominating so much as Mercedes, probably the spectators prefer some more action,” he said of the Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton dominance so far in the 2014 season. “(Fans) liked the Canadian GP and everyone seemed to enjoy it (when the Mercedes duo ran into trouble).”

Well, I don’t recall di Montezemolo and the Ferrari hierarchy offering to change the rules when Michael Schumacher, then Kimi Raikkonen, were racking up six championships between them in eight seasons from 2000 to 2007.

But I digress.

It isn’t that Mercedes is superior to the rest of the teams that fans have problems with, it is that F-1 racing the way it is constituted now is boring.

Even Alonso agrees with that.

“We will try to put a better show in the next races and if the teams or the fans or whatever, have any ideas, they will be welcome to have a better show,” he said.

A move that could help, apparently is about to be announced and that is having standing starts following a safety car situation.

Autosport magazine reported Friday that such a change for the 2015 season has already been approved by teams and will be announced next week in Munich at the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

The idea is to have restarts that will bring fans to their feet, similar to how NASCAR double file restarts do in their Sprint Cup division.

“There is a consensus that the current rolling restarts with the leader dictating the pace do not provide enough excitement,” the Autosport piece said.

The proposed new system will allow lapped cars to get back on the lead lap a-la NASCAR’s wave around rule and then line up they same way they would on a race start.

The object here is to make F-1 racing as exciting during the event as it is at the start.

They might also try going back to using the KERS system that transfers more energy/acceleration to cars attempting overtaking maneuvers.

It is something that Alonso is advocating.

“In my opinion KERS should come back to our cars,” he said. “We have the electric (boost) but we do not have the extra boost to help in overtaking — now we all use the same energy in the same places, so it is impossible to overtake.”

The message is clear: Passing equals excitement and right now there is not enough of either in F-1.

FINISH LINES

The Mercedes duo kept their foot in it during Friday practice, with Hamilton fastest with a lap of one minute, 9.542 seconds at Red Bull Ring with Rosberg right behind him at 1:09:919. Alonso was almost a second back of the leader at 1:10:470 in his Ferrari. The William Mercedes pair of Valteri and Felipe Massa round out the top five at 1:10:519 and 1:10.521 respectively. ... Alex Tagliani will be the lone Canadian in NASCAR this weekend driving the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford Mustang at the Nationwide Series Gardner Denver 200 at Road America in Elkhart lake, Wis. ... There are only two road course specialists entered in Sunday’s Toyota SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway — Boris Said in the No. 32 Ford and Tomy Drissi in the No. 66 Toyota. ... Word in the Sprint Cup garage is that if Marcos Ambrose comes up short at Sonoma Sunday and Watkins Glen next month he is through at Richard Petty Motorsports in the No. 9 Ford at the end of the season. ... The FIA has upheld the decision to punish Sergio Perez with a five-place grid penalty at the Austrian GP for causing the crash with Felipe Massa on the last lap at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago. ... And the Toro Rosso Formula 1 team has been handed a $15,000 fine — which will be suspended for the rest of the year as long as there is no repeat offences — for running a set of extra tires in Friday’s Austrian GP practice.